Tech Roundup: Brazil dWallet, Perplexity Labs & More

[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]

• Brazil pilots dWallet, a digital wallet program that allows users to monetise their data, the first nationwide initiative of its kind in the world.
• Vietnam orders local telecommunications providers to block access to the popular messaging platform Telegram by June 2, citing national security concerns and the company's alleged failure to comply with local laws; says the platform isn't doing much to address criminal activity on the app, including fraud and drug trafficking.
• Google expands Veo 3 availability to 71 additional countries; allows Gemini Pro subscribers to get a trial pack of 10 Veo 3 generations on the Gemini web app.
• Google begins widely rolling out Activity tab in its namesake app, enabling users to access their search history, Saved items and Collections.
• Apple acquires RAC7, the two-person studio behind the popular Apple Arcade game Sneaky Sasquatch, marking its first acquisition of a video game studio;
• Anthropic rolls out voice mode in beta for its Claude mobile apps, allowing mobile app users to have "complete spoken conversations" in English; lets free users share up to 20-30 voice messages before hitting a limit.
• Mistral launches an API for agents that can run code, make images, access docs, search the web and "hand off" to other agents.
• Apple says its App Store it blocked over US$ 9 billion in fraudulent transactions over the past five years, with US$ 2 billion in just 2024; claims it rejected nearly 2 million risky app submissions in 2024.
• Civitai, an AI model sharing site and marketplace for generative AI content backed by a16z, bans models and images depicting real-world individuals on its site, citing new laws and the loss of its payment processor, after problems with nonconsensual porn.
• Salesforce agrees to acquire cloud data management company Informatica for nearly US$ 8 billion, making it its second biggest purchase since it bought Slack in 2021 for nearly US$ 28 billion.
• Meta finally launches a dedicated iPadOS app for WhatsApp, about 15 years after the messaging service and the first iPad launched; says Instagram now supports photos with a 3:4 aspect ratio, ensuring that photos appear as they were originally shot, without cropping.
• The European Commission says it is investigating Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos for potential child safety violations under the Digital Services Act (DSA) "as a matter of priority"; warns Shein that several of its practices violate E.U. consumer protection law, including by offering fake discounts and pressuring customers into completing purchases with phony deadlines.
• The Browser Company says it is pivoting away from its Arc browser to build AI-native browser Dia, citing Arc's complexity and limited mass-market appeal and that it ran into a "novelty tax" problem.
• Texas becomes the latest U.S. state after Utah to enact age verification for app stores; signs into law the App Store Accountability Act, requiring Apple and Google to verify the age of App Store and Play Store users and mandating users who are under the age of 18 to receive parental consent to download apps or make in-app purchases.
• OpenAI says it's exploring ways for users to sign in to third-party apps using their ChatGPT account, as the company courts developers who might want to integrate this service into their apps.
• WordPress announces the formation of an AI team with contributors from Automattic, Google and 10up to steward the development of AI products across the ecosystem; parent company Automattic says it will resume contributing to the WordPress project, after announcing a pause in April.
• Google adds a new analytics section to Drive to allow authors to see view counts for content on the cloud platform and introduces a Gemini AI feature that analyses videos to provide actionable insights; redesigns the editor in Photos on its 10th anniversary so that it "provides helpful suggestions and puts all our powerful editing tools in one place" and adds a new feature to share albums via a QR code.
• The Hanover Administrative Court in Germany orders websites to display a clearly visible "reject all" button on cookie consent banners if they offer an "accept all" option.
• Mozilla tests a new "Link Previews" feature that allows users to hover over a link in a web page to get an AI-generated summary of what's behind it before actually clicking on it.
• Microsoft opens Windows Update to any third-party app that needs to be updated, letting developers sign up for a private preview of a new orchestration platform.
• Opera announces Opera Neon, an AI "agentic browser" that performs tasks on users' behalf; describes it as a "premium subscription product."
• Music streamer Spotify adds a new podcast-focused feature to its mobile app, including a following feed and recommendations, to make it easier to keep track of podcasts users follow and more easily discover new ones.
• Google-owned YouTube plans to roll out Google Lens integration to Shorts in the coming weeks, allowing users to search for elements within short-form videos.
• AI company Perplexity launches Perplexity Labs to let Pro users craft reports, spreadsheets, apps and dashboards that are backed by "extensive research and analysis."
• An Apple-funded study says the U.S. App Store drove US$ 406 billion in 2024 billings and sales, up from US$ 142 billion in 2019, with developers paying no commission on 90% of sales.
• Microsoft rolls out anonymous file sharing for Android, enabling users to open Microsoft Office files on their device without needing to sign-in to a Microsoft account.
• Online dating platform Tinder tests a new feature for Tinder Gold and Tinder Platinum subscribers to set a preferred height range for matches they receive in the app.
• Meta says its AI offering, Meta AI, is being used by 1 billion monthly active users across all its apps; reveals a "small" uptick in violent content, bullying and harassment and an overall decrease in the amount of content actioned in the first quarter of 2025 after it revamped its moderation policies.
• AI development platform Hugging Face continues its push into robotics with the release of two open-source humanoid robots HopeJR and Reachy Mini.
• Meta and Anduril, a defense technology company started by Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey (which was later acquired by Meta), team up to work on extended reality (XR) devices for the U.S. military that "provide warfighters with enhanced perception and enable intuitive control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield."
• Google releases an Android app called Google AI Edge Gallery on GitHub, letting users run some AI models from Hugging Face locally on their phones.